Curing Partisanship

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/opinion/curing-partisanship.html

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The email came from an old friend, in response to my newsletter yesterday arguing that Democrats should oppose Neil Gorsuch’s nomination:

But David, where does it end? Are we to become like Israel and the Palestinians? No peace in our time? And if not, in whose time?

I agree the Republicans were deeply wrong. But I really worry when reasonable people like you become so partisan, because it is a sign that there will be no middle ground, only extremes. Sigh.

I understand how my friend feels. I feel highly uncomfortable making a case that is, as he said, “so partisan.” I’m a fan of compromise, and I believe our government functions best when both conservatives and liberals are shaping policy.

But here’s a question for everyone who thinks Senate Democrats should support Gorsuch — and it’s actually the same question my friend posed: Where does this end?

The Republican Party has become radicalized, in a way that’s fundamentally different from the Democratic Party’s recent move to the left. Congressional Republicans opposed the Obama administration almost across the board, even when they agreed on substance. Senate Republicans last year took the unprecedented step of refusing to consider any Supreme Court nominee.

This obstruction has brought huge benefits to the Republican Party, including control of the Supreme Court.

For anybody who desperately wants a more functional political system, it’s tempting to believe that a bipartisan approach from Democrats today would encourage a more bipartisan approach from the Republicans in the future. But I see no evidence for that view. Do you?

If Democrats turn the other cheek, the rational takeaway for Republican leaders would be that there is no price for obstruction. There are only rewards. Republicans could comfortably assume that they should treat the next Democratic president — and the next Supreme Court opening under a Democrat — the same way they treated the last one.

I’m not suggesting that Democrats should impede the workings of the federal government at every turn. They should not. Democrats should vote to confirm some of President Trump’s nominees and should look for areas where Republicans are truly willing to compromise.

But I’d urge everyone who disdains reflexive partisanship to avoid the lure of wishful thinking. Playing nice isn’t always the most effective way to fix a problem.

For another argument against wishful thinking, I recommend Jonathan Chait in New York magazine. For anyone who wants to see the evidence that Republicans have become more radical than Democrats, read the canonical work of Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein (in article or book form) as well as a nerdy political science analysis known as DW-Nominate scores.